Of all the things that Tiger Woods does so well, perhaps
the most impressive and certainly the easiest to overlook, is that
he simply
does not miss cuts.
Woods making the cut is a sure bet, even when it appears he might
stumble.
The world's No. 1 player created a brief stir at the Players Championship
last Friday when he flirted with the cutline of even-par 144. Woods,
who had opened with a 72, couldn't get anything going on his first
nine, finishing with one birdie and one bogey. On his second nine,
the front side of the Stadium Course at the TPC at Sawgrass, Woods
birdied three of the first five holes, then had a lone bogey at the
eighth for a 2-under round of 70 to make the cut by two strokes.
Woods has missed only two cuts in his professional career, although
he tends to think of it as only one missed cut.
The PGA Tour credits him
a missed cut in the 1998 AT&T Pebble Beach
National Pro-Am. That was the year when the weather was so bad in February
that the event wasn't even concluded until mid-August, still one of
the more bizarre golf decisions in history.
Rather than return and finish up a tournament that really wasn't
going anywhere for him (he was 4-over after two rounds), Woods withdrew.
The only other time Woods failed to play on the weekend was at the
1997 Bell Canadian Open when his 6-over score missed the cut by one
shot at Royal Canadian GC.
Needing to play the last two holes in 1-under to make the cut, Woods
birdied the 17th, but gave back the shot with a bogey at the 18th.
"It had to happen," Woods, who had made 25 cuts as a pro, said at
the time. "I can't play my entire career without missing a cut."
Well, almost.
By making the cut in the Players, Woods ran his streak to 101 straight
events in the money. Only Jack Nicklaus' mark of 105 straight and Byron
Nelson's 113 are better. Woods could definitely pass Nicklaus this
year, but Nelson might have to wait until 2004 simply because Woods
doesn't play that many events.
The streak is something that is on Woods' mind, though less from
the point of view as establishing yet another record or simply making
another check.
"I've always taken pride in the fact that I never dog it," Woods
said last week. "All of you know that about me, that I'll give it everything
I've got to the very end. I take great pride in the fact that I've
been as consistent as I've been. Even the days where I didn't play
well, like yesterday where I could have easily shot a high number,
I still hung in there and kept myself in the tournament."
After a third-round 68, Woods was so much in the tournament that
it would have been a surprise to see him challenge for the title. Three
wet balls and Davis Love III's brilliant 8-under-par 64 put an end
to those thoughts.
Still, it was another gritty performance from Woods, who finished
tied for 11th.
So how does Woods continue making cut after cut? It's really pretty
simple: very rarely does he shoot a round over par.
In 2003, he's had two over-par rounds. In 2002 he failed to shoot
par or better 11 times. Only once did that year did he have two over-par
rounds in the same tournament and they each 1-over scores. In 2001,
Woods had only nine over-par rounds, again with just one tournament
in which he had two over-par scores.
By contrast, in 2001-02, Phil Mickelson had 37 over-par rounds to
Woods' 20 and missed six cuts.
And that's just one of the many things that makes Woods the best
golfer in the world.
